


Take a Bite of My Heart Tonight

by aqualined (inabstract)



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-05
Updated: 2015-04-05
Packaged: 2018-03-21 11:51:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3691233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inabstract/pseuds/aqualined
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jamie is eight years old the first time he ever shifts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take a Bite of My Heart Tonight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amasijo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amasijo/gifts).



> For Monica, who likes handsome dogs. 
> 
> Title from _Animal_ by Neon Trees.

Jamie is eight years old the first time he ever shifts.

It’s a family trait, Jordie tells him. He also warns Jamie not to say a word to anyone under pain of death. As if Jamie would–he’s seen _X-Men_ and he’s not about to be some government lab rat. Jordie just laughs before turning into a wolf and beckoning Jamie to run with him. At this age, Jamie can only manage the simplest forms so he ends up an overly eager puppy chasing after Jordie’s far more majestic timberwolf. He doesn’t mind in the slightest. 

It’s exhilarating. It’s freeing. It’s _natural_.

–

Jamie’s parents give him _the talk_ at twelve. It’s not the standard birds and the bees, but rather a cautionary tale of what happens to young men who think they’re invincible simply because they have every animal coursing through their veins.

Spoiler: they’re not.

–

It’s Jamie’s sixteenth birthday, the first time he thinks about sharing his secret with someone outside of the family.

Her name’s Lara and she’s beautiful and smart and plays hockey. Jamie’s young, but he still thinks he might marry her one day.

They’re alone in his room having a quiet moment away from the party when Jamie works up the courage to tell her. He’s half nerves and half excitement when he morphs into a fox–her favorite animal. 

She doesn’t tell a soul, but her frightened gasp and the way she looks at Jamie afterwards (equal parts uneasy, scared, and even a little disgusted) sticks with him for years to come.

–

When Jamie is twenty-three, he’s made captain of the Stars and meets Tyler for the first time. He’s young, wild, and free in ways Jamie never could afford to be, but they gravitate to each other nonetheless. Jamie’s presence calms Tyler, while Tyler opens him up in ways nobody outside Jordie could before.

It’s really no surprise that Jamie falls hard and fast.

–

Jamie’s twenty-five when he finally bites the bullet and changes into a rottweiler in front of Tyler and his dogs.

Marshall and Cash seem pretty stoked to have a new canine playmate, but there’s something unreadable in Tyler’s face so Jamie quickly shifts back to human.

Jamie’s worry must be plain to see because Tyler is quick to drag him into a kiss and whisper that he loves him before pulling off his clothes and saying, “I need to show you something.”

*

Jamie’s twenty-five and it’s an ordinary day in Dallas when he discovers the love of his life has the same strange and beautiful abilities that he does. 


End file.
